Minsk courts convict participants of anti-tax rally

The court of Minsk’s Leninski district considered yesterday administrative charges brought against two persons detained during a protest staged on Friday to campaign against the introduction of a new tax on vehicle owners.

Kanstantsin Hlushko and Andrei Samokhin were accused of resisting arrest.

As a result, Kanstantsin Hlushko was sentenced to five days of administrative arrest. Andrei Samokhin, the passenger in Kanstantsin Hlushko’s car, was acquitted.

Simultaneously, the court of Tsentralny district heard the cases of young opposition activists Aliaksandr Frantskevich, Anastasia Kukhta and Anastasia Shaternik who were detained during the protest on Friday.

The activists were detained after former political prisoner Aliaksandr Frantskevich started shooting plainclothes policemen with his mobile phone. His friends tried to protect him, but were also detained.

All of them were later charges with resisting arrest.

As a result, Aliaksandr Frantskevich was sentenced to 12 days of arrest.

Anastasia Kukhta and Anastasia Shaternik received fines of 650,000 and 1.3 mln rubles respectively.